If the Chinese are snooping on us

Some of the things celebrated as major news amuse me. One of them is the noise about how China allegedly uses a computer to spy on African Member States at the African Union Commission. Back in 2012, possible planting of snooping devices was the first thing that crossed my mind when I learnt that China funded and constructed the then newly-opened AU headquarters in Addis Ababa. A bare understanding of international relations makes such intrigue obvious. And if you grew up reading, as I did, spy thrillers of the Cold War era by novelists such as John le Carré, a snooping China won’t be news. The snooping saga is made news though by the French newspaper Le Monde. Yet, it’s for another reason I look in on this.

On February 2, 2018, Lagos-based TV station, TVC News, aired ‘Journalists Hangout, UK’ and a topic of discussion was the reported China espionage at the AU. The three panel members, obviously Nigerians in the Diaspora, were asked how China was the country that constructed the AU headquarters. Lanre Akinola (identified as Editor, African Business), at exactly 8:44pm, said China had been a major player on the continent in the last few years. Agreed. But he added that China was a factor because “Africa does not have the money… does not have the resources” to do many of the things that China had done for the continent. Is that true? At 8:50pm, Akinola added that “…without China, Africa wouldn’t be what it is today.” These are sweeping comments laden with untruths which many viewers would easily swallow. But it’s a wrong narrative that should bother the perceptive, more so as it comes from Africans, Africans who should know that the wrong things we do are what have make this continent a weakling, not that we don’t have what we need to lift ourselves up.

Such comments also have the corollary implication of making Africans erroneously think every solution to problems on the continent is outside, or that the continent’s problems are caused by outsiders. I don’t subscribe to such, and my disposition is rooted in the conviction that it’s easier to change oneself than to change the other person. If you don’t like what you are getting, change what you are giving. It’s the reason I’m not moved when some take on President Donald Trump for calling us names. It’s the reason I don’t hesitate to call attention to what leaders here do that may eventually lead to problem, and what they should do about a problem that they’re not doing. In the past, I had called attention to how leaders here did nothing until the UN was compelled to set up the International Criminal Court to prosecute leaders who committed crimes against humanity. I was alarmed that some Africans who could be potential victims of bloody rule bought the argument of a few African leaders that the ICC was picking on them.

Now, is it true that Africa doesn’t have the resources it needs to move on so China is a compulsory saviour? I won’t go into a country-by-country breakdown of the funds looted on the continent. Rather, I adopt the picture painted by the AU. In 2017, the AU appointed President Muhammadu Buhari to lead its anti-corruption campaign. In doing this, the continental body acknowledged the harm that looted funds were doing to the continent. That wasn’t the first time the AU was calling attention to the challenge. Back in 2011, a meeting of Africa’s Ministers of Finance, convened by the AU and the UN Economic Commission for Africa, identified illicit capital outflows as constituting a major obstacle to the development of Africa. Consequently, the AU formed a high level panel to investigate and make recommendations about what Africa should do. Former President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa chaired it, and it began work in 2012. In May 2015, Mbeki addressed the Pan-African Parliament regarding the findings of his panel. Illicit outflow of capital from Africa, he concluded, had helped to hinder development.

He said, “It is estimated that over the last 50 years, Africa lost in excess of US$1tn in illicit financial outflows. Our panel further estimated that our continent loses annually over $50bn through these illicit financial outflows.” These estimates, Mbeki says, are based on data obtained from the International Monetary Fund, Directorate of Trade Statistics, which reports annual exports and imports for all reporting countries. “The figure of $50bn is therefore an underestimate as it excludes such elements as trade in services and intangibles, proceeds of bribery and trafficking in drugs, people and firearms,” he added.

Here, there’s a need for some layman’s comparison. Every year, Africa loses an underestimated $50bn to other countries through corrupt practices. But it’s interesting that with the enormous media noise which accompanies China’s Silk Road projects that cut across Asia, the Middle East into Europe, all that China has invested is $50bn since 2013, according to the Chinese official Xinhua News Agency. And Credit Suisse Group AG said China could pour more than $500bn into 62 countries over five years to promote trade and investment. That’s still less than the $1tn that Africa is estimated to have lost to looters involved in trade-related activities, 60 per cent of which are attributed to the large commercial companies alone. As the Mbeki panel stated, other (underreported) sources of illicit financial outflows included criminal activities, and corruption which it understood to mean the expatriation of corruptly acquired resources as well as the abuse of entrusted power to facilitate illicit export of capital.

Moreover, China has been identified as one of the few countries in the world today with big money to spend. It reportedly has over $3tn in international reserves, more than a quarter of the world’s total. It’s noteworthy though that in the period when China prudently gathered every dollar, accumulating $3tn in the process, Africa lost to illicit outflow more than $1tn that could have been in its reserves. Even more importantly, as this loss continues, the African Development Bank and others have estimated that Africa needs $30bn to $50bn annually to address its infrastructure needs. (That, in a situation in which the same amount is creamed off the continent annually). But there’s also the large volumes of capital which the continent needs in order to address the challenge of eradicating poverty and underdevelopment. According to Mbeki, it’s “precisely in this context that the imperative stands out that everything should be done to stop the illicit financial outflows which contribute so much to depleting the capital our continent so urgently needs.”

It’s interesting that each time the thing China does for Africa is mentioned, it’s forgotten what China gains from Africa. Bilateral relations are never one-way. What China gains effectively offsets what it gives or invests in Africa. No country does business at a loss, and none is dedicated to the welfare of another except it has what it wants to gain. China needs crude oil and other innumerable solid minerals for its mammoth growth. We know the country that buys these items gains more, no matter the mount it pays. We know also that, going by its grander plan to overturn the US’s domination, Africa is just one other pawn on China’s chess board. We have resources that draws China, yet Africans themselves stereotypically categorised the continent as having nothing. It’s such a convenient narrative.

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